Responsible tourism

Responsible tourism: Family holiday in Peru

The very ethos of our style of travel is responsible; small groups made up of between three to five families, on fully escorted tours, experiencing the very best of a region, a culture and a landscape, with a friendly local hand guiding the way. Our itineraries are designed to give every member of the group, regardless of age real life experiences without compromising the part of the world we are exploring; to travel responsibly, and encourage others to do the same is at the heart of our commitment as a global tour operator.

We believe that responsible travel is about the attitude you take with you and the choices you make when travelling - to respect and benefit local people, their cultures, economy and the environment. We travel by these values wherever our groups go; whether exploring remote regions of South East Asia to getting under the skin and discovering our European counterparts.

We travel in small groups (3-5 families) so have a minimal impact on the environment as we go. We work hand in hand on this itinerary with our local operator, who employs on our behalf local group leaders, drivers and the local site guides we use throughout the itinerary, creating vital local employment. This also works to give our family travellers a really special trip experience; exploring the Amazon with a naturalist guide who has grown up in the region really engages the children with their environment as well as the adults, and is a great way to learn more about conservation efforts in the region.

We stay in small, locally owned hotels for most of this trip, with our nights in the Amazon staying in an eco-friendly lodge designed in the traditional native style. When the group dine together we will tend to eat in in family run, smaller establishments and we’ll source supplies for lunches en route as we travel, ensuring that as much of the money as possible generated by our visit finds its ways back into the local communities we are travelling through.

Your group will be accompanied throughout by an English speaking local group leader. All our team are regularly trained and we work closely with ground staff to ensure that they are fully engaged in ensuring every member of the family not only has a fantastic holiday, but also that they have the tools to help all travellers understand the nature of the environments we are passing through and know how to minimise the impact that they have. This includes everything from where to buy souvenirs and supplies locally, to taking all rubbish with you leaving nothing behind. It also includes advising travellers on cultural differences they may encounter, for example Latin Americans can be very conscious of appearance so try to be casual but conservative in your dress particularly when visiting churches or religious sites when shoulders and knees should be covered.

We also ask our travellers to consider using refillable water bottles and purification tablets or filters during their trip rather than purchasing bottled water while travelling. The sale of bottled water contributes to an enormous environmental problem around the world. In addition to the water in the bottles; the production of a 1 litre plastic bottle takes 2 litres of water and 200ml of oil. A large proportion of these bottles end up in limited landfill or discarded in waterways and natural environments, sometimes despite the best intentions of those who disposed of them.

Environmentally, we are a carbon neutral company, offsetting the ground emissions of all our passengers on all our trips. On this trip through Peru, we have calculated that this equates 596kg per person per departure. Should you wish to make your family’s holiday entirely carbon neutral we can arrange to assist with the offsetting of your flight emissions, please just let us know at the time of booking.